"And there!" A cheery black-haired girl pulled out a tray of six freshly baked cookies from the oven before setting it on the yellow counter. "Another successful batch has been made!"
"They look perfect." The pink apron-donning boy smiled at his crush as he continued stirring the bowl full of frosting. "Now all there's left to do is to decorate the cake…"
"Why don't we take a quick break? We don't want to finish all the fun too quickly now. Plus, you've earned it with how hard you've been working, my cute talented chef~."
The teen couldn't help but be flustered. "Mari…"
"What?" The black-haired girl giggled as she picked up two of the cookies. "The others aren't around, which means I got free range to spoil you to my heart's content."
Hero let out a defeated sigh before taking the pastry from Mari's hand and taking a bite. A mix of crunchy and chewy, there really was no person who could make cookies quite like her. "You sure you're never going to share this recipe? Not even with me?"
"No can do!" The black-haired girl took a smaller bite out of her pastry before chuckling. "That recipe will be made by only me till the day I die."
Hero was a little unnerved by that last line, the thought of the girl he loved so much not being in his life briefly crossing his mind, but he immediately chalked it up to Mari just being Mari. Yeah, that's it. That's all it was.
"Guess I'll have to make the most of these cookies while I can then."
"Yeah…" Mari paused, looking up above her for a moment before back at the brown-haired boy. "While we're on the topic, I've been meaning to tell you something."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"What happened wasn't your fault, Hero."
"My fault…?" He paused before he could take another bite.
Mari simply looked on with an innocent smile on her face as the light from outside beamed through the window behind her.
"My death, silly."
"Wha-" But before the chef could let out another word, the weight of Mari's words hit him like a bat to the head. What was happening right now, baking cookies in the kitchen, spending time with the girl he loved, enjoying the innocence of his youth. His cookie fell to the ground when he finally realized the truth.
This wasn't real.
"It's all just a dream." The black-haired girl's voice brought Hero's attention back to her. "That's what you're probably thinking now, right?"
"I…" Hero could barely form a single word. He had no idea what was going on, what to even think. Mari let a single finger boop his lip before holding his hand though. Through that simple gesture, the cook understood all he had to do was listen.
"It's been hard for you, finding out the way I left and not knowing how, why it happened. Knowing you well, you'd end up blaming yourself, and…" The black-haired girl held on tighter to the boy's hand. "I'm so sorry for that."
"But, it wasn't your fault." Mari said with a conviction in her voice he never heard in the time he knew her. "And Hero, after all the painful years you've been through grappling with it, you'll know that's the truth yourself soon enough."
The brown-haired boy could barely see the girl through the tears in his eyes. "How did you know… I was suffering like this…?"
"Oh, Hero…" She embraced the quivering boy around her loving arms, just as warm as he remembered her hugs to be. "Just because I'm no longer in the world of the living doesn't mean I'm not with you anymore."
"I'll always be watching over you, Hero." Mari patted the unneat hair of her cute talented chef. "All it costs is your love."
"I don't want this to end..." The kitchen began to disappear.
"I know." Mari held on tight.
"I don't want you to leave." A transient void filled the space they once stood.
"I know..." Mari held on even tighter, the moonlight from reality peeking through and the somnial experience coming to a close.
"I love you, Hero."
The brown-haired boy gave a final look at the girl through teary eyes as her warmth left his body, before ultimately vanishing with the void with a smile on her face.
"I love you too, Mari."
